Malines ca. 1625 – Ghent 1692
A terracotta Group of the Virgin and Child
Terracotta | Sculpted on full round | Restorations
H. 52,5 cm. W. 24 cm. D. 23,5 cm.
PROVENANCE
Private collection | The Hague | The Netherlands | Where formally attributed to Artus Quellinus the Younger (1625-1700)
REFERENCE LITERATURE
Neeffs, E. (1879). Histoire de la peinture et de la sculpture à Malines. Ghent, Vol. II, pp. 193-200
Nieuwdorp, H. (1977). De beeldhouwkunst in de eeuw van Rubens in de Zuidelijke Nederlanden en het prinsbisdom Luik. Brussels: KMKG, pp. 325-327 nrs. 294-298, p. 140, nr. 103
Jacobs, A. & Vézilier, S. (2011). Fascination baroque: la sculpture baroque flamande dans les collections publiques francaises. Paris, pp. 116-121
CATALOGUE NOTE
We are grateful to Dr. Bieke van der Mark of the Department of Sculpture of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam for her help in cataloguing this group and for suggesting the attribution to Rombout Pauli
This fine terracotta group depicts the Virgin seated on a block, with her legs crossed and her gaze directed downwards to the Christ Child sitting on her knee. The Virgin is represented with girlish features, a tiny, pointed nose and chin, plump cheeks, small ears, and lightly waving hair. The playful Christ Child looks towards the viewer, holing his arms outstretched to the left. Corresponding with the spirit of the time, Christ’s nakedness is covered with a veil. The lighter material of the Virgin’s dress and the heavier cloth of her mantle is richly draped in busy folds, modelled in flowing lines. Previously this group was attributed to the Antwerp sculptor Artus Quellinus the Younger (1625-1700). However, an attribution of the present group to the Malines sculptor Rombout ‘Pauli’ Pauwels appears more likely.
Rombout Pauwels, also known as Rombaut Pauli, was a sculptor and architect from the Southern Netherlands who worked in a moderate Baroque style. He was active mainly in his home town Malines and in Ghent. He became an apprentice in the Guild of Saint Luke on 7 July 1636, living first with his master Rombout Verstappen and later with Jacob Voorspoel. It is evident that Michelangelo’s Medici Madonna, kept in the New Sacristy at San Lorenzo in Florence, served as the inspiration for the composition of the present Madonna and Child. Copies of the Medici Madonna were available in the Southern Netherlands, but it is noteworthy in this respect that Rombout Pauwels lived and worked in Italy some years. After completing his apprenticeship in Malines, Pauwels went to Rome and became apprentice to the Brussels sculptor François Duquesnoy (1597–1643). In Rome he became acquainted with both the style of Duquesnoy and the art of the Italian masters. Duquesnoy ran a very successful workshop in Rome, which produced sculptures in a classicizing Baroque style. Jerôme Duquesnoy II, the younger brother of François, and the Antwerp sculptor Artus Quellinus the Elder also worked in this workshop. They and Pauli introduced the moderate Baroque style of François Duquesnoy on their return to the Southern Netherlands. From 1656 Pauwli worked in Ghent, where he was admitted to the Guild in that year. For St. Michael’s Church there, he made a marble copy of Michelangelo’s Madonna and Child which is kept in the Church of Our Lady in Bruges. Pauwli was therefore surely well acquainted with Michelangelo’s works, of which also the present sculpture is testament. In style and handling, the present group shows similarities with the flowing lines of a standing terracotta Maria Lactans by Pauwels, singed ‘PAVLI’ and kept in a private collection (Nieuwdorp, 1977, pp. 325-327 nrs. 294-298, p. 140, nr. 103). Jacobs and Vézilier list three other terracotta’s by Pauli, two representing Venus with Cupid (nrs. 30a and 30b), the fisrt signed by ‘P.PAULI’ both in the collection of the Palais de Beaux-Arts in Lille (inv. nrs. 987.8.1 and 987.8.2) and a standing Saint John as an infant, collection Palais de Beaux-Arts, Lille (inv. nr. 992.12.1; Jacobs, 2011, pp. 116-121, nrs. 29, 30a and 30b and). The modelling style of there Venus with Cupid sculptures are very similar to that of the present Madonna and Child (e.g. the folds and hair of Madonna and the Venuses and the face of Venus (30b). In addition, the shape and positing of the fingers are very similar and both the Madonna and the two Venuses have a headband in their hair – just like the signed standing Maria Lactans mentioned before. Regarding drapery and facial type, there are similarities between the present terracotta group and the marble Madonna in Ghent. Further similarities can be observed in the modelling of the Christ Child of the present group and a Putto in the Brotherhood Altar of the Holy Cross in the St. Michael’s Church in Ghent, sculpted by Pauwels between 1653 and 1655 and the before mentioned Saint John as an infant singed ‘PAULI’ (Jacobs, 2011, 116, nr. 29).
Pauwli was an accomplished sculptor who worked in the moderate classicizing Baroque style, pioneered by François Duquesnoy. In 1642 he moved back to his native city Malines, where he joined the Saint Luke’s Guild in 1643. He collaborated with the city’s leading Baroque sculptor Lucas Faydherbe (1617-1697) on the funerary monument of Archbishop Andreas Creusen (1660) and the high altar (1660–1665), which both can be found in St. Rumbold’s Cathedral. Since he got very few commissions and suffered much under the rough competition with Faydherbe, he resettled to Ghent. There he completed various commissions such as the Baroque gate to the local fish market, which was a collaborative effort with Artus Quellinus and J.B. van Helderbergh. He was responsible for the tomb of bishop Karel Maes in the St. Bavo Cathedral. For the St. Michael’s Church he made the above mentioned marble statue of the Madonna and Child after Michelangelo and the Brotherhood Altar of the Holy Cross. Both works are representative of the rather static and classicizing style of Pauli.